Dick Tracy: Early 1940 Trivia Quiz

Answer: A thousand dollar bill

Coincidentally, Dick Tracy is getting a shave in this very barber shop. He recognizes Viller and realizes that he still has friends in town.
Stooge now goes to a pawn shop and pays $500 for his safety deposit key which the proprietor has been keeping for years. At the bank vault, Stooge counts out $55,000 and is back in business.
Next, he goes to Professor M. Emirc and pays $1000 just to have a look at his laboratory. Emirc has hand sized acetylene torches to cut through coin operated machines and tear gas canisters to attach to cars among other things. Stooge also sees some unlikely items from the butcher shop which the professor says will be on the news soon.

Answer: Pig's feet

Much to Chief Brandon's amusement Dick Tracy sends notice to all butcher shops to be on the lookout for large orders of pig's feet. When one shop reports just such an order, Tracy goes along to deliver it, only to find Viller with the professor. When Stooge holds up Tracy, the nervous butcher tries to attack him and is shot.

The crooks force Tracy to help them move Emirc's expensive equipment, then set the place afire with the butcher's body inside. Stooge has another idea in mind for Tracy.

Answer: The works in his watch

With his hands tied behind him, this seems impossible. Chester Gould got his characters into dilemmas without any idea how they would get out. He thought that if he didn't know how they would do it, neither would his readers.
While Tracy is scratching away with the insides of his watch, we see Viller attempting to get together with his young daughter, Binnie.

Answer: Binnie Viller

Binnie and her girl scout troop are camping in the woods, led by Tess Trueheart. As unlikely as this seems, it works well in the story. Coincidence is a necessity in a comic strip to keep it interesting. Tracy soon figures out who Binnie is, though she is reluctant to tell him. Stooge reads about Tracy's escape and discovery by Binnie and is furious. The rest of Viller's gang, realizing he has put the heat on them, stick him up and demand an equal share of the money. Usually in "Dick Tracy", this results in a shootout, but Stooge just tosses them his roll and decides to leave town.

But he's not planning to leave alone.

Answer: Stooge

Nobody draws dead or injured people like Chester Gould and when Stooge draws another gun his bloody, limp arm looks painfully useless. Tracy follows as Viller dives into the river, not caring if he makes it to the other side or not. Dick Tracy rescues him and he and Binnie visit Stooge in the hospital.

Answer: If Tracy will keep an eye on Binnie

Shocked, Dick Tracy asks, "Do you mean that, Stooge?"
"You're ok, flatfoot." And with that, Stooge dies.
Here Gould makes the reader feel sorry for a criminal who had killed numerous people in his three time run. Just when his strip began to fade, he knocks one off the wall with this one. But his best is yet to come.

Answer: Kidnaps the child

The boy is Mr. Kroywen's grandson. His son, Kress is the father. Kress is shocked at what his father has done.
But the boy wasn't totally abandoned. A female figure has been lurking in the shadows feeding clues to the police which somehow always got bungled. Now she shows herself to be an old friend, Toby Townley, Kress' wife. She abandoned the baby because Mr. Kroywen wanted to do a medical experiment on it and Kress was out of town, unable to help her.

Answer: Injects him with Tropic Sleep germ solution

When the police arrive, the boy is already asleep, and Mr. Kroywen is mixing a serum. Trying to take the baby to a hospital, Tracy causes a scuffle and Mr. Kroywen hits his head on a table and dies as the serum is spilled on the floor. At the hospital, Tracy is appalled to find the doctors won't try to help the child because there is no cure for Tropic Sleep. Grasping at the only chance to save it, he and Pat Patton take the baby and find the formula for the serum. Tracy mixes it as Pat keeps the police and doctors at bay with a gun in either hand.

The serum is given to the baby, Tracy is jailed, and after a long wait the baby recovers. Kind of a mushy story, but bringing Toby Townley back along with the Kroywens being well developed characters make this a decent read.

Answer: Metal shavings

Since she can't recall her name, the police call her 'Mary X'. When she takes the stage to sing again, a shot rings out but the bullet intended for Mary X is deflected by the microphone. Questioning the doorman, Tracy finds the only man who left the club was Mr. Mason. Mason is an old friend of Chief Brandon and when he and Tracy come calling, they share a good laugh together. "I've been an old stick in the mud for so many years maybe a shooting scrape would pep me up!" Mason says.

But after they walk through the machine shops of Mason & Freez, the Chief notices small metal shavings in his shoes.

Answer: A man's arm

Mary X still has no memory, but Tracy calls Mason to the morgue. He recognizes the dead man as his partner Freez, whom he thought was on a business trip. Mason begins acting very nervous when Mary X is brought in to face him, but she still can't remember anything.